Vampire Knight: The Icy Spirit of Two
by Tsukiko x3
Summary: Zero recollects the memory of a snowy day he shared with his twin, Ichiru, long ago...ZeroxIchiru twinship oneshot.


Zero and Ichiru don't have many fics about them.  
But they're so cute...  
They deserve one.

--

The howling wind tapped on the ice-encased window with resounding clacks. Winter's quiet calmness showered it's presence on the lands with snowy fingertips. Icicles formed on every window of Cross Academy; glittering brilliantly in unison with the pure fallen snow. Zero wearily rested his head on his desk, wrought with sleep from performing the twenty-four hours a day duties of a prefect. Class ended long ago, but Zero had slept through all of the dry lectures of complicated speech. His silver hair fell over his face and vermillion eyes as he still sat there with his head down; unmoving. The tapping on the window became louder and louder as the wind seemed to scream with the intention of wanting something unknown. Zero noted this all with a hazy glance, as a lost memory of a snowy, windy day just like this one now, flooded vividly from the back of his mind…

--

"Zero!" A voice resounded in echo throughout the slopes of a snow-covered hill. Zero heard the voice call his name in a seemingly happy tone, as he was just about to turn his head to inquire who it may be. But in that split second, he suddenly felt two arms embrace around him warmly.

"I-Ichiru…" Zero said startled at the unexpected encounter of his twin.

"So this is where you were, Zero." Ichiru said quietly as he nuzzled his cheek against Zero's own softly.

"I thought you were in bed sick…"

"I was. But…" Ichiru gripped his hold on Zero tighter, an expression that seemed to indicate of never wanting to let go. "Mother and father left to hunt a vampire, and I was lonely…and Zero wasn't in the house, so…"

"I'm sorry, Ichiru." Zero said slowly as his troubled eyes gazed downwards at the foot printed marked snow. Eddies of snowflakes flurried beneath the feet of the two.

"Zero!" Ichiru exclaimed. He released his embrace, but still kept his hands on Zero's shoulders. He carefully slipped in front of the troubled Zero, rubbing his forehead against his affectionately.

"Don't." One word of a demanding syllable elapsed from Ichiru's lips. "Don't apologize."

"But…" The conflicted Zero began saying in objection.

""Hm." Ichiru closed his eyes as a small smile contrived upon his face. "I'm not lonely anymore now…"

"Ichi—" Zero paused, recollecting his thoughts for a brief moment. He smiled in unison with his much loved younger twin. "Ichiru." He whispered in the wind's cold breath.

After a few silent minutes as if taking in a pleasant experience slowly in that world of snow, and as two lone figures stood amidst in it's white blanket, Ichiru pulled away from Zero and asked softly,

"So what we're you doing out here all alone? Zero?" His steady eyes bore through Zero with a secret hidden within them.

"I…I was just taking a walk…" Zero stammered.

"That's a lie." Ichiru rested his forehead on Zero's again in conviction. "I know that Zero doesn't do idle things like that."

"Heh…can't get anything past you, Ichiru."

"No." Ichiru smiled, returning his silver glossed head back to it's own position. Zero could not help but conceive a wry smile upon his face. Ichiru's eyes drifted away in a haze as a white rabbit that blended in with the snow caught his attention. Zero noticed the intensity that appeared to loom in his twin's eyes as they gazed distantly away.

"What is it, Ichiru?"

"That rabbit…" Ichiru said slowly. He reluctantly slid his hands away from Zero's shoulders and quietly trotted up to the rabbit with light footsteps; being extra careful not to frighten it away. Zero turned his head at Ichiru's action, as his eyes, too, met the appearance of the snow rabbit.

"I've never seen a white rabbit before." Ichiru cautiously bent down near the rabbit on his knees. The rabbit pricked it's long ears up in surprise at Ichiru's sudden encounter with him. It stared at him with beady black eyes.

"It's fur only turns white during winter." Zero explained as he too, was now bending down next to Ichiru. The rabbit's eyes darted back and forth between the two, as if asking why they were consulting with him.

"See?" Zero pointed up to the bleak dreary sky. "The sun isn't out much during winter, so the brown fur of the rabbit turns white." The rabbit tilted it's head as to inquire that Zero was right about his fur.

"Amazing." Ichiru said with wide eyes in wonderment, his breath coming in puffs from the bitter cold air. "Zero knows everything."

"N-No…I don't, Ichiru."

Ichiru turned his gaze away from the rabbit and cast it upon his twin now. "I'm so lucky that Zero's my twin." He leaned to the side as he wearily rested his head upon Zero's shoulder and closed his eyes. "I'm so lucky to have Zero by my side."

"Ichiru…" Zero gently caressed the soft hair of Ichiru's quietly. "I'm glad, too." He smiled to himself. A smile that Ichiru could not see. But if he had, if he had seen his beloved older brother's small, but great, smile, perhaps then the future of the two that was to come would not have been as torn as it was so. Fractured by an unseen stroke of ill luck.

The next thing that Ichiru noticed when he opened his eyes is that he was lying upon something so incredibly warm and comforting. An embellishment of forlorn troubles. He pondered upon the last memory he remembered remembering as the image of being by Zero's side in a snowy flur, relapsed itself back into his mind. Now he remembered. But now he was back in their small house that lay hidden in that snowy flur, underneath the most pleasant of warm covers obscuring him.

"I-Ichiru!" A familiar voice exclaimed by his side. Ichiru turned his head weakly as his sight caught glance of the person he loved the most sitting by his side. Zero.

"Zero…" Ichiru smiled wearily at his appearance, which he greatly admonished.

"Thank goodness you're awake. You passed out in the snow…remember? Luckily mother and father just arrived home, so they were able to help you back inside." Zero's tone of voice resembled that of one who is gratefully relieved.

A hint of scarred concern knitted itself into Ichiru's brow. "Now it's my turn to apologize…"

"No." Zero, to Ichiru's surprise, suddenly put one arm around his neck in a reassuring gesture. "You don't need to." Ichiru opened his mouth to object in reply, but then dimly shut it as he closed his eyes sleepily, a smile still displaying across his pale face.

"Thank you, Zero." He whispered.

--

Yes, that memory still retained it's presence in Zero's mind; his mind that was now already strewn with so many complicated things. But regardless of all of the misfortune and grief that came between him and his twin, forming a distant gap, Zero still greatly cherished that younger brother of his…Ichiru. There were times when he secretly wished so desperately that sudden events had to change them both so. He wanted to live in tranquil peace with his family, especially Ichiru, forever. But the bloody trigger began to pull back slowly that day…inch by inch…until that finger finally released it. Inevitably of it's coming devised within the bullet. To undo that trigger, Zero would do anything. Anything to be affectionately embraced by Ichiru, if only one last time. The icy spirit of the two that was inseparately unbreakable.


End file.
